Page:Athletics and Manly Sport (1890).djvu/54

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THE SKILL OF GREEK BOXERS.
29

knocked him out. He must have done this, for there was no other way of breaking Irus' jaw. He could not have struck him with his left, for Irus' jaw was nearer to his right.

This straight cross-counter, which the Greeks knew, is the most effective and the most powerful blow that can be given, except the round blow.

Of the fight between the heavy-weight Epeus and Euryalus, after the funeral of Patroclus, here is a report:

"Him great Tydides urges to contend,
Warm with the hopes of conquest for his friend;
Officious with the cincture, girds him round,
And to his wrists the gloves of death are hound.
Amid the circle now each champion stands,
And poises high in air his iron hands;
With clashing gauntlets now they fiercely close,
Their crackling jaws reëcho to the blows.
And painful sweat from all their members flows.
At length Epeus dealt a weighty blow
Full on the cheek of his unwary foe;
Beneath the ponderous arms' resistless sway
Down dropped he nerveless, and extended lay."

Here we see that the Greek boxer wore a belt like the modern, and that he fought in a ring; but of the details of this fight we can judge nothing.

There is a boxing match, however, in the "Æneid," between Dares and the aged Entellus, in which the manner of the fight is given more clearly, and from which we learn that there was a